For longer than we can remember the State of Origin has always meant drinking too much shitty, canned beer with family members you rarely see, whom are shouting at a television you’re not even watching…. Why? Because Queensland won, again. This year, like every year, the lads wearing the maroon jerseys have come up with the goods.

Johnathan Thurston kicked some conversions, Gallen punched someone and Hopoate fought hard against the urge to emulate his father’s tackling technique. Yet despite all the similar origin occurences and Deja-Vu’s we saw, it was still an interesting match.

From kick-off until the first 10 minutes it looked fairly even, however as the red-sea parted Cameron Smith led his group of Four X fiends to salvation once again. Adding yet another notch to the drawstring of their proverbial footy shorts, and making it their 9th victory in a decade.

Proving the age old fable that nothing can beat team history, no matter the sport, no matter the level of competition; a team that’s played together and won together, will ultimately stay together.

Though the match did quickly blow out of the water, Origin is always good value for one reason, big hits and footy fights. The clip below shows the prior of those which eventually lead to the later – and might we say, though it was an illegal tackle, Corey Parker caught some serious hang time as Trent Merrin gingerly speared him head first into the green turf.

As the demographic salad of southern-cross tattoos and pissed Sydney-siders spilled out of Suncorp Stadium into the night air the Blues coaches were hit with a shocking reality, that is, no matter what balance of experienced players and young guns you have on your side, and no matter how well they are on paper, nothing beats synergy.